Gift of the Givers Foundation co-founder graduates with Masters from UKZN
Co-founder of the humanitarian organisation, Gift of the Givers, wife, and mother of five, Ismail Sooliman is now a Master's graduate. The fifty-seven-year-old recently received her Master's in Social Sciences from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
MRS Zohra Ismail Sooliman, the co-founder of the humanitarian organisation, the Gift of the Givers Foundation, recently graduated from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) with her Master’s in Social Sciences for research that examines the lived experiences of Muslim women in a polygamous marriage in Durban and its surrounding areas.
Her husband Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman attended his wife’s graduation and said he was very proud of her achievement.
Throughout her life, Ismail Sooliman has been an advocate for women’s empowerment, independence, and education. She continuously encourages women to pursue their talents and abilities. “We must use our abilities and skills to contribute to the communities we come from to make a difference in their lives,” said the fifty-seven-year-old.
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After seeing women in polygamous marriages distraught and broken by their husbands taking on a second or subsequent wife, she started running a counseling service called the Gift of the Givers Careline Counselling Service. This service has grown immensely and now extends to the public free of charge through telephone and face-to-face counselling.
Ismail said she hopes that gathering the experience of women who are in such situations for her master’s research, will create awareness in society, particularly amongst men and religious leaders.
“People will understand and be compassionate towards women who are going through such relationships. It will provide education to them and the communities they come from,” she said.
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She advises other scholars to work hard, be disciplined, determined, and keep focused on the end goal. She is grateful to her support system of family, friends, work colleagues, and her supervisor.
Ismail plans to continue her work with the Gift of the Givers Foundation and encourages the public to do good and be good always.
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